Notes From the Heartland

We're in the middle of  a blitz run from home (Orlando) to Evansville, Indiana for my wife's family reunion. I like being married so I'll leave off all the family jokes.

We drove 13 hours straight to get here and we haven't stopped since. We did get some time at Holiday World (we're theme park people from the theme park capital. We have to compare parks!). Holiday World will get it's own post and I'll respond to Execupundit's tag for more info about me as soon as I can hide from the relatives. For now, I can safely say that:

• Crocs and their knock offs continue to be a huge hit with the under 13 set. Though based on my daughter's dislike of them, the actual cutoff may be around 11. (For the unitiated, this is the shoe, not the animal.
• Indiana is wonderfully civilized. Domesticated, tame, Diet Mountain Dew was readily available (free at Holiday World!). This is unlike last year's Alaska vacation where I was forced to hunt and kill wild Diet Mountain Dew with my bare hands. Diet Mountain Dew is a wily creature and Alaska has very little of it natural habitat, the 7-11.
• A pasty old man in a fluorescent green swimsuit with a nipple ring is frightening no matter what state you're in.
• Technology has changed the road trip. We have 3 DVD players with us, a Sony PS2 connected to one of them, GPS on my Q1 and audio books for the driver via the Q1 and a bluetooth headset. The driver arrived tired by not stressed out.
• Books continue to be a hit on the road despite technology.
• Bookstores continue to disappoint me as they give over more and more shelf space to music and movies.
• Gas is cheaper in the middle of nowhere than in the cities. This seems counterintuitive but it's what we saw.
• When there is no gas in the middle of nowhere, it's scary!
• We're in southern Indiana, just barely over the Kentucky border and we're already sick of corn. Bring on the E85 fuel. There's plenty of corn to fill up the tank and you're belly. We pay enough people to NOT plant stuff. Imagine if they could actually make money growing corn for the tank!

That's all for the moment. I know you were missing me.